Entries tagged with: SamFogarino

A while back we told you about EmptyMansions, the solo project from Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino, whose debut album is out April 2. You can stream "Lyra" from the album below and pre-order the album here.

While a tour hasn't been announced yet, EmptyMansions (which also features Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard/Tomahawk and Secret Machines' Brandon Curtis) have scheduled a couple NYC shows: Knitting Factory on April 26 and Mercury Lounge on April 27 (tickets). Tickets to Mercury Lounge are currently on AmEx presale with a regular on-sale on Friday (2/15) at noon; Tickets for Knitting Factory are on sale Friday at noon.

A list of all known EmptyMansions dates, April 4th at DC9 included (which we're presenting as part of a series of shows BV is presenting in DC), and the song stream are below...

We're pleased to welcome Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino in person to present a new collaboration between the band and legendary filmmaker David Lynch, plus a screening of Lynch's Cannes-winner WILD AT HEART. A new animated short created by Lynch to accompany Interpol's song "Lights" from their self-titled fourth album, I TOUCH A RED BUTTON MAN is a hallucinatory black, white and red all over lo-fi extravaganza. Following the screening, Fogarino will discuss the band's work and take questions from the audience.

[Swervedriver's] Adam Franklin: Most of the earlier tunes were [Interpol's] Sam [Fogarino]'s, and mostly started with simple guitar lines, to which I would then place chord sequences beneath or counter-melodies on top. Sam also gave me a nine-minute Mellotron jam, which I cut and arranged into a verse/chorus/verse arrangement. I also wrote the lyrics and vocal melodies. Although 90 percent of the lyrics are mine, probably 50 percent of the titles are Sam's, due to the fact that he tends to name his demos. This makes it interesting for me, because the lyrical threads follow paths suggested by the titles. After we established a sound aesthetic, I began bringing in some song ideas to which Sam would add keyboards, guitars, atmospherics, rhythmic patterns.

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Adam Franklin: The live show should be fun. Myself and Sam essentially inhabit the engine room of a kick-ass live unit. The band sounds out-of-this-world after a week or two of rehearsal. Bolts of Melody's Josh Stoddard is on bass; Blasco, who has previously played live with Interpol and Secret Machines is on guitar, melodica and psychedelic banjo; and The Album Leaf's Jimmy LaValle is on keyboards. He was an obvious choice, as Sam and I have both known him separately for some time.

Before blogs, before the internet as we know it, Jack Rabid was writing up all the shows he attended, the records he listened to, and interviewing his favorite bands. Since 1980 he's been publishing The Big Takeover which started as a Xeroxed 'zine but is now a legit glossy mag, thick as a phone book, and even more crammed with reviews and meaty interviews with some of the biggest indie/alt bands and artists on the planet. The passion (and the encyclopedic knowledge of the staff) makes it such an awesome read to this day.

In addition to The Big Takeover, Jack is also a great drummer. Having played in a number of bands over the years (early '80s punks Even Worse, and more recently Last Burning Embers), he might be best known as one-third of '90s-era trio Springhouse. While lumped in with the then UK dreampop scene (Ride, MBV, etc), Springhouse (Mitch Friedland on treated classical acoustic, and bassist Larry Heinemann) was closer to early-'80s groups like The Sound, The Comsat Angels and The Chameleons, the latter of whom they opened for on their 2002 reunion tour.

Springhouse released two very good, if under-heard, albums on Caroline in the '90s and have been slowly working on a third that will finally see the light of day in October. As Jack wrote on Bigtakeover.com:

"From Now to OK, which we've been working on for the better part of 10 years, is finally finished and will be released in October...on limited edition, 550 copies deluxe Bruce Licher-designed letterpress multi-layered foldout CD art package and free internet digital download, Radiohead-style (i.e. pay what you want!). Then we hit the road!"

That tour is a "Big Takeover Presents" triple bill. Headlining are Magnetic Morning (previously known as The Setting Suns), the "supergroup" (my term) of Swervedriver's Adam Franklin, Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino and Jimmy LaValle of the Album Leaf. I saw them at their debut show back in December and despite a then-dearth of material (they've only got a six-song EP out so far, including three versions of one song and a cover) Magnetic Morning had it together, as you'd expect from a group of pros like this. They've been holed away in the studio all summer so I imagine we'll really find out what MM are all about in October.

Opening the Big Takeover tour is Washington DC's Julie Ocean, which is fronted by two veterans of the '90s DC/Arlington indie scene: Jim Spellman was in Velocity Girl and The High-Back Chairs (and is now a producer for CNN where he recently got Tasered on purpose); and Terry Banks was in Tree Fort Angst, The Saturday People and Glo-Worm. Julie Ocean's debut, Long Gone and Nearly There, is ridiculously catchy power pop.

There are only six dates on the Big Takeover Presents tour as of now, including one at Southpaw in Brooklyn on Oct. 21 which is also the opening night of CMJ. Tickets are on sale.

Didn't see Byrne, Bowie or Reed in attendance at the Wilcoconcert at Warsaw last week, but Pavement's Stephen Malkmus was spotted, as was the slighly lesser known Adam Franklin. Admittedly I wouldn't have even recognized the ex-Swervedriver shoe-gazing frontman by myself, so I'm glad my friend not only pointed him out, but reminded me that Adam has a new solo album called Bolts of Melody - out 6/26/2007. Further research revealed that you can stream the entire album, and that Adam is playing at Mercury Lounge in NYC TONIGHT (July 2, 2007).

It's also worth noting that Adam has been collaborating with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino on a project called The Setting Suns.

The Setting Suns will start recording their debut EP (Title TBA) in NYC this June. Among the tracks to be included is a cover of the Kinks' "The Way Love Used To Be", and an "epic" version of "Cold War Kids". Sam intends to play Adam's guitar whenever Adam leaves the room. Release is scheduled for the fall. Further details will be posted as they develop....................The duo met over dinner in NYC last winter, while being introduced by long time, mutual friend, Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover).